


The Fell-Knight

by leradny



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:47:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21599413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leradny/pseuds/leradny
Summary: When a battle between the First Order's Kylo Ren and the finest pilot of the Resistance destroys a village, the only survivor is the scavenger Rey. To avenge the death of her only friend and guardian Kallus, Rey hunts down the Knight-Master in an attempt to kill him. Upon being discovered, she is not executed but taken onto their ship to become a squire in a different form of servitude. [The Darkangel Trilogy AU]
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 6





	The Fell-Knight

**Author's Note:**

> any reylos read 'the darkangel trilogy' by meredith ann pierce? you should. it's great. but uh, it's not a happy ending!!!! not even a bittersweet ending. the last book was the epitome of tragic.
> 
> i read the first book in middle school. which was probably too young for me to read a lot of books i read back then (sabriel was another one of them). meredith ann pierce's prose is beautiful, using old words in new (or archaic) and sometimes startling ways, and like star wars magic and science gleefully coexist.
> 
> that said, it's not exactly a one-for-one character swap, so i have changed... well, a lot of things. this is more in the SPIRIT of the Darkangel, with a beauty-and-beast redemption style character arc and theme of saving the world (or rebalancing the Force).
> 
> 1) a plot point is that aeriel might be a lost princess. this is not happening here. while i adore the rey kenobi theory, i also think it's important to stick with the theme of rey coming from nothing.
> 
> 2) the darkangel has thirteen brides and must take a fourteenth to finish transformation into a true darkangel. there are seven other darkangels, and irrylath has seven human half-brothers on his mother's side. and, well, there's all the other characters aeriel meets. THERE AREN'T ENOUGH CHARACTERS IN ALL EIGHT MOVIES FOR THIS. so, uh, there's no real plan or schedule to this work besides what i have in point #3.
> 
> 3) remember what i said about the darkangel trilogy being the epitome of tragic endings? i respect the ending of the third book and it is beautiful in its own way. i just can't physically bring myself to write anything besides a happy (or at least bittersweet!!!) ending for rey and ben.

Droids were not made for the waste of Jakku. All scavengers knew that. The sand got into their sensitive joints, dulled the protective coatings on their bodies, and the heat wrecked havoc on their circuitry. Yet Unkar Plutt thought everything, even the laws of nature, would bend to his will, so he took the first working droid salvaged for his own use. It had been a kitchen droid, and its name was BX-778. The knife-arm was fearsome enough for Plutt to deem it suitable for his own purposes, so he'd ordered a scavenger to reprogram it as a sentinal and weld the arm straight out.

The reprogramming had gone poorly and one could more often expect a cup of tea as a stabbing. Moreover, the poor thing whirred loudly when he overheated, which was nearly all the time. It caused a terrible grating sound that set everyone's teeth on edge ten long minutes before he properly came into view, rusted knife arm welded into one stiff beam, wheeling along so slowly that even a youngling could outpace it.

He was Plutt's watchdog, yes--but such an entirely useless one that scavengers simply did as they wished. Sometimes they threw stones at him as a terrible sort of game. Other times they used him to hold things for them, or do minor tasks. If one managed properly, they could get Beex to wash parts for them with Plutt none the wiser.

Rey pitied the droid. Rather than throw stones or use him as a lackey, she took it upon herself to maintain and repair Beex after she learned enough to do so, which got her in Plutt's good graces at times. Though his memory banks had not been altered, the sun and toil and faulty reprogramming meant the droid did not remember much anyway. He could be counted on to recite his model number, the odd recipe, and the name of his old mistress (called Leia of Alderaan).  
  
As Rey apparently resembled this mistress, Beex followed her about sometimes. She was glad of the company and often asked questions to see what he remembered of foods--and the places they came from--outside of Jakku. She fancied sometimes that she would copy Beex' drive into another chassis that had not been so mangled, then take him with her to visit different planets so he could make them again and she could taste them.

She was cleaning parts at the washing well in the square when the shuddering sound of Beex's wheels sounded faintly in the distance.

"Karabast. Rey!" The old scavenger across from her had the same low-brow Coruscanti accent as Plutt. He jerked his head towards a building in the distance. The staff along his back had once been a bo-rifle, but it was rarely used as such anymore, without a proper energy source to recharge it. "That damned droid's coming close. Why don't you just scrap the thing and put us all out of our misery?"

"It's Plutt's property, Kallus." Rey shouldered her staff. "But if you want Plutt to replace it with a proper security droid that won't alert everyone to its presence from a mile away, you're free to bring it up."

Kallus snorted and said nothing more while she jogged towards the long, pointed shadow of the droid, only kept one of his brown eyes on her. Gruff and standoffish as he was, and as deadly in combat as a scavenger half his age, the gray-haired human was still more trustworthy than others--at least to Rey.

She would take old Kallus with her, too, she thought with a smile.

On the very first day she'd arrived, heartsick from watching her family fly away without her, crying in the shade of a building, Rey recalled a firm hand on her shoulder after Plutt had left her to the mercy of the scavengers. "Come along, youngling," said a male voice, who she'd later come to know as Kallus. Yet for some reason she recalled Kallus' voice back then as smoother, like the traditional Coruscanti accent. She had looked up to see a human, older but still handsome with tawny hair and clearer brown eyes. But there was steel to his back that gave her pause. "I won't hurt you," he assured her. "I'm taking you to the creche."

"Is that where I'll wait until my parents come back?"

He paused, then nodded. "Yes, of course. Until they come back."

She clung to his hand the whole time until he left her at the door of the creche, and then cried herself to an early sleep.

The next day, she found Kallus and thanked him, and that was when he spoke in his usual growl. "Weren't nothing. You was in my way, is all."

As she got older, Rey thought that it was only the softness of his voice and a child's unreliable memory which made her think he'd spoken in a proper Coruscanti accent the first day. Certainly no one else had ever heard Kallus speak with anything other than in his usual rough voice.

But anyway, there was Beex's memory to prod, which Rey gladly took up. "Hello, Beex," she greeted him.

"M-m-m-m-Mistress Leia," Beex answered, and Rey's ears pricked up. Whenever he called her that, something interesting was sure to be fished out of his memory. "Might I offer you some-ome-ome-ome tea?"

"Of course, Beex," Rey said. "You know what I like, don't you?"

"On a hot d-day, you are 86% more likely to request a cup of oro bark tea, provided the transplants f-f-f-from New Alderaan are thriving-ing-ing." Beex rattled, tiny sparks coming out of his joints. Rey stopped in the shade of a building and hoped the cooler air would help the droid.

"Remind me how the trees are this year. What's the weather like on New Alderaan?"

"Oro bark is best harvested after-ter-ter rains when the outer bark has softened enough for the inner bark to--" The sparks got worse. She sighed and gave Beex a whack on the head with her staff. His vision sensors went blank for a moment, then lit up to their regular greenish-blue. "I beg pardon, Mistress Leia, my memory circuits seem to be misfiring. Would you repeat your query?" Rey repeated it. "Oh, of course. The rains were satisfactory this year and enough of the inner bark was deemed suitable enough for export."

"And it's best to have a short rain, yes?"

"No, Mistress Leia, a rainshower lasting approximately the duration of one standard day is is preferable. Too short and the inner bark will not be exposed for harvest. Too long, or too early in the night, and the trees risk mold growth."

"What sort of mold grows on Alderaanian oro trees?"

"Yes." Beex whirred. "Mistress. Yes, Mistress yes Mistress yesMistress."

"Beex?"

"Leia. Mistress. Leia. Orders from Mistress Leia, given to T-2LC, and transferred to me despite my lack of programming as a childcare droid. Watch Master-ter-ter-ter Ben-en-en-en."

Rey sighed again.

Sometimes Beex did this. While she'd been frightened the first time when she was a youngling, it turned out to be a harmless echo of whenever he was told to watch over 'young Master Ben', who Rey presumed was the mistress' son. It might well have been why he took the sentinal programming at all--his former mistress had already given him tasks other than cookery when the nanny droid had not been available for some reason. "Beex, you're not watching Ben anymore. Please tell me more about the oro trees."

"Watch Master Ben--kshhhhhhzzzzzzt--watch Master Ben!" Beex whirled and rolled as fast as he could across the sand, which was still about the pace of a brisk walk.

Regardless, Rey didn't follow him this time. She trailed back to her parts at the washing well and turned her attention back to cleaning and musing on oro trees. She settled back into her seat and picked up her brush, but her attention was only half on her tools. She wondered what oro-bark tea would taste like, and moreover how rain felt.

"Oro trees? They were from Alderaan, I reckon. Had some oro-bark candy sticks some thirty odd years ago. Good, but I've no taste for sweeties like that."

"Where is Alderaan, Kallus? Do you know?"

"I know it ain't nowhere," he told her. "Old Alderaan, at least. It's a dead planet, it is. Emperor wiped it out with the Death Star before you were born. And before that he wiped out Lasat."

"Lasat? Was that were you lived before Jakku?"

Kallus' face shut like a door. "Nay, I never lived there." He gathered up his things, brisk and neat into his pack, and patted her on the shoulder. "Get done with your parts, kit."

\- - -

It was the end of the day and Rey's portions were heavy in her pocket. She longed sorely to go home and eat one, but her flask was empty. She pushed past the stragglers also going home and found Beex in the square, circling the drinking well, waving his sole moveable arm, and seeming quite distressed.

"Master Han, Mistress Leia!" The droid was whirling about the well, welded knife-arm rattling something terrible. "Mistress, the young master has fallen!"

Rey sighed. "Master Ben is fine, Beex. He's back with T2-LC."

"Oh, Mistress Leia, he is not! Mistress and Maker, forgive me. The young m-m-master is dead! De-e-e-a-a-ad!" His voice grew staticky and pitched high upon the last cry, carrying through the whole village.

Rey froze, halfway between fleeing with her hands over her ears and trying to allay the droid's distress. Sometimes Rey would find ships with working holovids recording the last moments of their crew. It was one of her worst fears, besides seeing the bodies in their seats. She hadn't expected this from a cookery unit of such a high caliber, but it wasn't unheard of. Yet she had no time to think about that as scavengers nearby awakened.

Inside the nearest shack, someone beat a wall with a staff. "Shut that thing up, Rey, or I'll do it! Don't care what Plutt says about that clanker--"

"Beex, would you fill this up for me?" With shaking hands, she unhooked her flask from her belt and thrust it at him. Sometimes giving Beex simple orders would settle him.

"S-st-strange signal in my receivers," Beex droned. "Command: Assassination."

Her throat grew tight but she shouted, "Beex, this is an order! Fill up this flask for me!"

"Assassination target--"

Rey wailed, unable to bear any more of the story, and seized the droid's head. There was a button below his neck which she'd never thought to use, but something told her to press it now. She gladly gave it a harsh blow. At once the light in his eyes went out, and his limbs and head dropped down to hang limp. Only the sound of Rey's harsh and stifled sobs echoed in the empty square.

"Kit?" came Kallus' voice. "What's that racket?" Rey tried to wipe her cheeks before he could see, but she dared not answer for fear her voice would quake. It was no use; the old man crouched to look close at her and put a hand on her shoulder, the same comforting hand she remembered so long ago. He steered her away from the unresponsive droid, a lone figure in the square with knife-arm sticking straight out. "Where's your speeder, kit?"

"Kal," she whispered, a name only she could use, and that only when she was a youngling and couldn't quite speak his full name. "I think Beex killed someone." He looked behind them, but Rey didn't dare. She clung to his hand, gloved yet warm, and wept as she walked. "I think that's why he took the sentinal programming so easily," she babbled. "Someone reprogrammed him to kill someone--and he killed his mistress's son."

"Them droids will take whatever program gets plugged into their skulls," the old man told her, not unkindly. "Turn on their masters. I've seen it before. Done it myself." He paused. "Killed a youngling, you said?"

"A youngling named Ben," she answered. She didn't know why it was important that she say his name.

"That Ben he talks about watching sometimes?" He shook his head. "No wonder they programmed him to do it. Or maybe they meant Beex to kill the mistress and he got his wires crossed--" He left off as Rey's face blanched white as starlight. "Ah, don't worry yourself, kit. But don't idle with that droid either, you hear? Cook's not a few steps above butchery, if you get my drift."

When they reached the edge of town where her speeder lay, she realized she'd forgotten her water. But to go back would mean facing the droid again, and she had no heart for it. She kept her mouth shut and decided she'd go without for the night, though her stomach was cramped.

Her companion frowned as he watched her climb her speeder and took up her flask, shaking it. "This is empty."

"I have water at home," she lied. The thought of speaking truth--that Beex had frightened her so that she couldn't bear to go back--filled her with shame. Was she a youngling again?

He unstrapped his own flask and gave it to her--it was full--then took hers. "Go home, little one. I'll use this as my own."

"N-no!" Though she was relieved at not having to go back herself, her heart quaked for the only scavenger who had ever been kind to her. "Please don't go back there, Kallus!"

"It'll take more than a rusty kitchen droid to snap me," he assured her. "Wait nearby if you'd like."

She turned her speeder on and followed him until they reached the square again. When Kallus went on, she turned away but clutched her staff. She thought of the Force, which was followed only by grandmothers and people who didn't live on Jakku, and prayed she'd be brave enough to come to his aid, but to her further shame what she wanted most was for Beex to stay shut off.

Water sloshed and she jumped, looking to the well despite her fear. Kallus shook the flask clear of stray droplets, a black figure under the awning of the well. Beex remained still, silent. Rey's heart slowly stopped hammering, and she clasped forearms with her companion before they parted ways.

For a while, she had thought Kallus was interested in her the way all men are interested in women. But he rarely touched her and never came to her home. He only came when she was in danger, and that grew less and less as she grew. He never turned an eye to adult women, neither--nor men, nor aliens of any sort. Though he was a fierce fighter when provoked, he never stole or cheated when left to his own devices, and that was practically a gentleman on Jakku. She thought, noticing the way he treated all children with the same rough yet protective hand, that he had been something like her.

Once, she plucked up all her courage to ask him about whether he'd lost his family. He'd said, "Of a sort." And no more at all.

\- - -

Her prayer worked too well, it seemed. In the morning Beex was still standing in the middle of the square, still unresponsive, and no amount of button pressing or beating would turn him back on. Nor was he recharging properly when Rey tried to hook him up.

"Scrap it!" Plutt hollered. "Thing's been half-dead for years. Rey, take it to the junk heap."

He threw one portion at her feet. Rey frowned, and looked up at the scavengers who were eyeing it, but not volunteering. One portion for a trip to the junk heap was hardly something to dangle in front of Rey's nose, considering her pile of parts would fetch at least twelve when they were finished. She'd eat the ration just getting there, if she had anything to cook with.

"I have parts to--"

"You want a portion, don't you?"

Rey nodded and slung the droid over her speeder. At the very least, she thought, ignoring how very much it felt like she was dumping a corpse, she could eat the bread on the way and save the meat for later.

"May I refill my flask first?"

"Ten minutes to get that thing out of my sight."

She sped to the square only to be halted by Kallus, standing in her path not a few paces away from the well.

"Looks like our flasks have gotten back in the right hands, eh?" He held out her own flask with a quirk of the lip that might be a smile. Rey smiled properly, then turned around and sped through the village and into the dunes, doing her best to keep from clipping several folk.

Once she'd gotten out of Plutt's sight as agreed upon, the ride to the junkyard was as dull as Rey thought. She saw so many droid parts scattered along the ground, worn away by sun and sand and wind, that she could not bear to leave Beex to rust away like them. So she rummaged about and withdrew his main drive to tinker with. Perhaps if she tried hard enough, she'd still be able to put it into a working chassis and bring him off-planet as she'd dreamt.

She allowed herself a moment of rest in which the sliver of hope grew, like a spark shielded between her cupped hands from wind. Then she sighed and mounted her speeder to return to the village.

Another day working herself to the bone.

Another night spent hungry.

And tomorrow would be just the same, she thought. Hope for the best, yet expect the worst. She didn't remember where she'd heard that. It might have been Kallus.

\- - -

On the other side of the planet, a pilot carrying one piece of a map had landed in front of Lor San Tekka's home.


End file.
